


Flight of Fancies

by Merfilly



Series: Slip In Time Pern AU [8]
Category: Dragonriders of Pern - Anne McCaffrey
Genre: Alternate Universe, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-22
Updated: 2013-09-22
Packaged: 2017-12-27 07:12:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,039
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/975956
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merfilly/pseuds/Merfilly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Canth, as ever, makes up his own mind, as the Hold is settling with its Bloodline back in power</p>
            </blockquote>





	Flight of Fancies

F'nor roused as his partner of the night moved. He opened his eyes to see L'tol there, and recalled the very interesting flight Canth had flown to catch Larth, L'tol's green. It brought a smile to his lips, feeling lucky that one of the greens had risen so close to the leadership flight.

Those left everyone in the Weyr keyed up, and a green flight was just the thing to tone it back down.

 _It helps I am the largest, smartest brown and catch any green I choose?_ Canth asked, amused by his rider.

_Mmm… advantage of being larger than some bronzes, I suppose. Do you want to keep her?_

Canth considered, then made a negative feeling. _It will be nice to sun with her, but she nor her rider fit us._

F'nor accepted that equitably. They'd never managed to find the right pair to be permanent mates with, and most of the green riders knew it. Nor did they much mind; F'nor and Canth were always easy going with former flight-partners.

_I like Lessa._

Canth's bold statement intruding just as F'nor started wondering what kind of mate it would take to hold him for the rest of his life made the rider twist in the furs enough that L'tol opened his eyes.

 _Later,_ he told his dragon, before dealing with the older green rider… experienced lovers were always worth that after-round.

`~`~`~`~`

"Lady Lessa!" 

Lessa paused in scrubbing the great room floor, one of a handful of people trying to restore the stone. While many of those left from the previous tenants were still nervous about their lives and places, seeing the Blood down on hands and knees to bring Ruatha back to glory had made some worries settle.

The Lord, his Lady, and their brood were intent on restoring Ruatha to the prominence it had once possessed.

"Yes… Niall?" She came to her feet, wiping her hands on the sturdy work apron she'd tied over her trousers. 

"One of the dragons… I mean the dragonmen… he's in the Courtyard looking for you," Niall told her, smiling at her having known his name.

"Thank you." She pulled the apron off and left it beside her work tools, going to find out who had come and why they wanted her instead of her father.

As soon as she cleared the doors, though, she had to smile. There was no denying who it was even before she spotted the rider; Canth was unmistakable. "Wing Second F'nor… or are you filling in as your brother's Wing Leader now that he caught his gold?"

F'nor laughed. "Word travels quickly."

She pointed up on the heights to the newly restored drum tower. "Father insisted, And the Master Harper agreed. I did not expect to see you, though. I thought you'd be settling in your new quarters!"

F'nor nodded. "Even Weyrs take Rest Days."

She cocked her head to one side, her eyes flashing with a challenge. "People taking Rest Days shouldn't show up in Holds where work is going on anyway."

F'nor shrugged his jacket off, tucking it into a carry strap on Canth's harness. "Show me where, Lady Lessa. I'd rather work in your company than sit in a dusty weyr resting."

She threw her head back and laughed at that, before taking his hand to lead him back into the Hold. He was very much a man with a goal, and it pleased her to find out just what goal it might be that could lead him to manual labor to stay in her good graces. He even intrigued her enough on a personal level to not pry into his thoughts about her… which Canth rumbled an approval of as he launched to rest on the Heights.

`~`~`~`~`

Lord Kale noted that the dragonrider was Lessa's guest at dinner that evening, despite the fact that it had to be nearing the middle of the rider's normal night. He'd seen the man pitch in at the routine but much-needed cleaning that Lessa and her siblings and all of their retainers had been occupied with since the Restoration. 

The brown rider knew how to work, and that was commendable, but… Lessa was his only daughter. No Lord wished to marry their sons into Holds for alliances; that was normally reserved for the daughters. The old history of dragonmen and their lusts haunted his mind as he watched his youngest child flirt with the older man, wondering how he could dissuade this from going further without offending the Weyrs.

Lessa, he decided, would have to actually be told her duties, and that was all there was to it, Kale decided when the meal finally began to break up, and the brown rider excused himself back to Benden.

`~`~`~`~`

Lady Adessa ran her hands over the carved bolster of the small reclining couch in her office, sitting at that end while her daughter sat upon its foot-end. The small but dynamic woman looked at her daughter, so alike in size, but carrying the delicate and pale features of the main bloodline, instead of Adessa's own darker complexion and squared lines.

"Lessa, now that we're not in the mountains, you do realize things will change?" she asked of her daughter.

Lessa sighed. "I am not a proper lady like you, mother, and I cannot just… turn to the frilly dresses as easily as Barla has."

Adessa smiled at that. "No, but you do have a Rank to uphold, to help secure the Hold to the Blood," she stated, trying to get Lessa to see.

"I hear dragons."

Lessa's blurted-out confession forestalled everything else Adessa might have said, leaving her to stare at her daughter. 

"Like Moreta of Ruatha, like Torene," Lessa continued. "I hear them. I have since that first time in Fort."

Her mother sighed very softly, then smiled anyway.

"I'll break the news to your father." Adessa tilted her head just slightly. "Is that why your friend comes when he is free?"

Lessa's own smile was dark and secretive. "Mayhaps… we'll see, I suppose, once he decides to admit if his interest is his own or the Weyr's?"

That made Adessa laugh quietly, knowing beyond doubt that her daughter would do well for herself, no matter what.

**Author's Note:**

> For those who may not have ever encountered it, Lytol's Larth was given as a GREEN in the original DragonFlight stories. This was before anything but a gold was female. By DragonQuest, it was decided by either Anne or an editor that the guardian of a young boy could not be a homosexual (one opinion) or that it did not fit his personality to be a green rider (my preferred theory) and Larth was suddenly a brown.
> 
> For this AU, I have gone back to the green, and L'tol never would have lost his dragon in a sloppy training exercise such as happened under original canon. And yes, I know L'tol would be of F'lon's generation more than his sons'.


End file.
